Israeli warplanes struck a resistance site east of Khan Younis, to the south of the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening.

According to the PIC reporter, no initial casualties were reported during the air raids.

A second resistance site was also targeted east of Gaza city.

A third target was hit in east of Jabalia city, in the north of the Gaza Strip, causing damage but no injuries.

Commenting on the attack, Israeli army claimed that the air raids came in response to incendiary balloons launched from the enclave.

"Earlier today, an explosive device attached to multiple balloons was launched on a model airplane from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. In response, IDF attack helicopters targeted two Hamas military posts in the Gaza Strip," a statement from Israeli army said following the attack.

Israel said the attacks came after Palestinians flew rigged balloons into southern Israel which fell without causing any damage or injury.Israeli forces regularly strike sites in the besieged Gaza Strip claiming they target resistance sites, however, thousands of Palestinians have been left homeless as a result.

These frequent air raids and sniper fire at the Gaza-Israel fence have led to hundreds of deaths since Palestinians launched popular protests calling for the end of the 11-year siege and for their right of return.

Israel has come under international criticism for its response to the unarmed protests taking part in the “Great March of Return” which was launched in Gaza on 30 March.

Dozens of Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon when the Israeli occupation forces heavily opened fire at the protesters taking part in Gaza's Great March of Return.

The PIC reporter said, quoting the Ministry of Health, that 15 Palestinians were injured by live ammunition and teargas canisters fired by the Israeli forces.

According to the Ministry, seven Palestinian journalists and paramedics were among the injured.

Thousands of Palestinians marched on Friday along the border fence separating the Gaza Strip and the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories for the 41st week in a row.

The Higher National Committee for the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege had earlier called on the Palestinians in Gaza to take part in Friday's demonstrations protesting the latest wave of normalization of relations between Israel and some Arab countries.

The Palestinians in Gaza on 30 March 2018 started major demonstrations along the border fence to demand the right of return for refugees and call for an end to the 13-year-long blockade on Gaza.

Since the start of the border protests, the Israeli occupation army has killed 256 Palestinians and injured over 25,000, 500 of whom are in a critical condition.

Israeli soldiers injured, Friday, at least fifteen Palestinians, including one doctor and six paramedics, during the Great Return Match processions in the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip, after the army resorted to the excessive use of force against the nonviolent protesters, holding the weekly processions for the 41st consecutive week.

The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported that the soldiers shot fifteen Palestinians, including six paramedics, one doctor and one journalist, after targeting them with live fire and high-velocity gas bombs.

It added that the soldiers shot Mohammad Abu Kashef, a medic with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), with a high-velocity gas bomb, fracturing his arm, east of Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The soldiers also shot Rafi Shaldan, a medic with the PMRS, with a high-velocity gas bomb in his pelvis, east of Gaza city.

In addition, the soldiers shot another medic, identified as Mohammad Abu T’eima, with a gas bomb in his head, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Many Palestinians suffered the severe effects of teargas inhalation, in addition to various cuts, bruises and burns.

The army resorted to the excessive use of force against the Palestinians along the perimeter fence, east of Gaza city, the al-Boreij refugee camp in central Gaza, in addition to Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern part, and Jabalia in northern Gaza.

In a statement, the head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, strongly denounced the ongoing and escalating Israeli excessive use of force against the unarmed civilians, medical teams and journalists.

Dr. Barghouthi stated that the soldiers injured six of the PMRS medics in several parts of the Gaza Strip, Friday, while they were performing their humanitarian duties in providing the urgently needed medical aid to wounded Palestinians.

He added that the soldiers deliberately target medical teams with live fire, in addition to rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs and concussion grenades, and stated that the soldiers use the high-velocity gas bombs as projectiles targeting the Palestinians hundreds of meters away from the perimeter fence.

Dr. Barghouthi denounced these escalating violations, and said the soldiers have killed three medics, and injured dozens, since the Great Return March nonviolent processions started on the Palestinian Land Dar, March 30th, 2018, and called on the International Community to hold Israel accountable for its crimes and violations of basic human rights, including its deliberate targeting of medics and journalists.

OCHA added that this is the highest death toll in a single year since the Israeli war on Gaza in the summer, of 2014 and the highest number of injuries recorded since OCHA began documenting casualties in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2005.

About % of the fatalities (180 people) and % the injuries (over 23,000) in the context of Gaza’s ‘Great March of Return’ demonstrations by the fence.

Across the occupied territories, 57 of the Palestinian fatalities and about 7,000 of the injuries were under 18 years of age. A total of 14 Israelis were killed during the year by Palestinians, and at least 137 others were injured.

Israeli soldiers and bulldozers on Friday morning carried out a small-scale incursion into the eastern border area of Khan Younis and Rafah, south of Gaza.

A reporter for the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) said that soldiers aboard some armored bulldozers moved from the border crossing of Sufa to an area in eastern Rafah before heading north towards the east of al-Fakhari neighborhood in Khan Younis.

The reporter added that the soldiers bulldozed agricultural land and carried out repairs on the barbed wire fence.

Every once in a while, the Israeli occupation army carries out such limited incursions into Gaza border areas, with no regard for the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire understandings with the Palestinian resistance.

The Israeli authorities released two Palestinian fishermen, on Wednesday morning, who were detained a day earlier, off the coast of the northern besieged Gaza Strip.

Sources at the Palestinian liaison told Ma’an that the Israeli authorities released fishermen Issa al-Sharafi, 60, and his son Mahmoud, 30, via the Erez (Beit Hanoun) crossing.

The fishermen’s boat that was confiscated by Israeli forces during their detention remained in custody.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian shepherds near Erez.

A Ma’an reporter said that Israeli forces, deployed at military towers near Erez crossing, opened fire towards Palestinian shepherds.

No injuries were reported.

The Israeli army also regularly detains and opens fire on unarmed Palestinian fishermen, shepherds, and farmers along the border areas if they approach the buffer zone, as the authorities have not made clear the precise area of the designated zone.

The practice has in effect destroyed much of the agricultural and fishing sector of the blockaded coastal enclave, which has been under an Israeli air, land, and sea blockade for nearly 12 years.

According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, Israel’s Gaza siege and “harassment of fishermen” have been “destroying Gaza’s fishing sector,” with 95 percent of fishermen living below the poverty line.

On Tuesday, 01 January 2019, Israeli gunboats chased and opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats. They then arrested 2 fishermen and detained a fishing boat. This is part of the Israeli ongoing attacks against Palestinian fishermen and preventing them from sailing and fishing freely and accessing the fish-breeding areas in Gaza Sea.

According to PCHR’s investigations, at approximately 10:00 on Tuesday, 01 January 2019, Israeli gunboats stationed off al-Wahah Shore, northwest of Beit Lahia, chased fishing boats sailing within 6 nautical miles and opened fire at them.

A gunboat then intercepted a fishing boat manned by ‘Isa Ahmed Jamil al-Shrafi (68) and his son, Basil (28), who are both from al-Shati’ refugee camp in western Gaza City.

The Israeli naval soldiers then ordered the fishermen to take off their clothes, jump into the water and swain towards the gunboat.

They were arrested and taken to Ashdod Seaport in addition to detaining the fishing boat. At approximately 22:00 on the same day, the Israeli authorities released the two fishermen via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing after interrogating them while the boat is so far under custody.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) emphasizes that the Israeli naval forces’ attacks on the fishermen in the Gaza Strip are part the collective punishment policy against the Palestinian civilians and violate the right to work according to Article (6) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Thus, PCHR:

Calls upon the international community, including the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, to intervene to stop all Israeli violations against fishermen and allow them to fish freely in the Gaza Sea;

Calls upon the Israeli authorities to stop chasing the fishermen and enable them to fish freely, especially that they do not pose threat to the Israel authorities; and

Calls for releasing the fishing boats and equipment detained by them and compensate Palestinian fishermen for their losses due to the Israeli attacks.